The Card, a Story of Adventure in the Five Towns eBook

This jocularity of Denry’s was a symptom that
Denry’s spirits were rising. The bearded
youth was seen oftener in the streets behind his mule
and his dog. The adventurer had, indeed, taken
to the road again. After an emaciating period
he began once more to stouten. He was the image
of success. He was the picturesque card, whom
everybody knew and everybody had pleasure in greeting.

In some sort he was rather like the flag on the Town
Hall.

And then a graver misfortune threatened.

It arose out of the fact that, though Denry was a
financial genius, he was in no sense qualified to
be a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
The notion that an excess of prosperity may bring ruin
had never presented itself to him, until one day he
discovered that out of over two thousand pounds there
remained less than six hundred to his credit at the
bank. This was at the stage of the Thrift Club
when the founder of the Thrift Club was bound under
the rules to give credit. When the original lady
member had paid in her two pounds or so, she was entitled
to spend four pounds or so at shops. She did spend
four pounds or so at shops. And Denry had to
pay the shops. He was thus temporarily nearly
two pounds out of pocket, and he had to collect that
sum by trifling instalments. Multiply this case
by five hundred, and you will understand the drain
on Denry’s capital. Multiply it by a thousand,
and you will understand the very serious peril which
overhung Denry. Multiply it by fifteen hundred
and you will understand that Denry had been culpably
silly to inaugurate a mighty scheme like the Universal
Thrift Club on a paltry capital of two thousand pounds.
He had. In his simplicity he had regarded two
thousand pounds as boundless wealth.

Although new subscriptions poured in, the drain grew
more distressing. Yet he could not persuade himself
to refuse new members. He stiffened his rules,
and compelled members to pay at his office instead
of on their own doorsteps; he instituted fines for
irregularity. But nothing could stop the progress
of the Universal Thrift Club. And disaster approached.
Denry felt as though he were being pushed nearer and
nearer to the edge of a precipice by a tremendous
multitude of people. At length, very much against
his inclination, he put up a card in his window that
no new members could be accepted until further notice,
pending the acquisition of larger offices and other
arrangements. For the shrewd, it was a confession
of failure, and he knew it.

Then the rumour began to form, and to thicken, and
to spread, that Denry’s famous Universal Thrift
Club was unsound at the core, and that the teeth of
those who had bitten the apple would be set on edge.

And Denry saw that something great, something decisive,
must be done and done with rapidity.

II

His thoughts turned to the Countess of Chell.
The original attempt to engage her moral support in
aid of the Thrift Club had ended in a dangerous fiasco.
Denry had been beaten by circumstances. And though
he had emerged from the defeat with credit, he had
no taste for defeat. He disliked defeat even
when it was served with jam. And his indomitable
thoughts turned to the Countess again. He put
it to himself in this way, scratching his head: